It took three trips to the grocery store before I finally decided to look at the NatGeo with this article. Basically, there's a Temple in Turkey that predates civilization, which is forcing historicans to rethink the idea that "man made religion" and instead suggest that "religion made civilization."

Granted, the Archeologist in the article is a Catholic and would obviously have a bias toward religion, but it's still nifty to think that a basic premise of the Bahá'í Faith - that Religion is the nurtuer of civilization - might be validated by archaeology.

However men try to reach me, I return their love with my love; whatever path they may travel, it leads to me in the end - Bhagavad Gita 4:11

"Knowledge is a light which God casteth into the heart of whomsoever He willeth" - The Four Valleys; Hadith

It took three trips to the grocery store before I finally decided to look at the NatGeo with this article. Basically, there's a Temple in Turkey that predates civilization, which is forcing historicans to rethink the idea that "man made religion" and instead suggest that "religion made civilization."

Granted, the Archeologist in the article is a Catholic and would obviously have a bias toward religion, but it's still nifty to think that a basic premise of the Bahá'í Faith - that Religion is the nurtuer of civilization - might be validated by archaeology.

Much belated thanks to Kalzera for sharing this article. Indeed, the temple site of Göbekli Tepe represents one of the most significant archeological discoveries since the beginning of...well...archeological discoveries.

Like excavator Klaus Schmidt put it: "First came the temple, then the city." Hunter-gatherers have thus been proven to exert remarkable concerted effort and to carry out sophisticated technical and artistic feats for the sole purpose of building a giant place of worship. It is difficult, whilst not impossible, to imagine other motivations than faith for Göbekli Tepe. Yet it just happens to be the first monumental complex in known history. The contemporary structures in Jericho are far more primitive in sophistication. The impressive neolithic village of Chatal Hüyük (also within modern Turkey), tracing as far back as ca 7,500 BC, is still a few thousand years younger than Göbekli Tepe. The temples of Göbekli Tepe as well as the clay tokens used in Chatal Hüyük as a form of pre-cuneiform writing, add credence to the following words by Bahá'u'lláh in answer to a questioner:

And now regarding thy question, “How is it that no records are to be found concerning the Prophets that have preceded Adam, the Father of Mankind, or of the kings that lived in the days of those Prophets?” Know thou that the absence of any reference to them is no proof that they did not actually exist. That no records concerning them are now available, should be attributed to their extreme remoteness, as well as to the vast changes which the earth hath undergone since their time. Moreover such forms and modes of writing as are now current amongst men were unknown to the generations that were before Adam. There was even a time when men were wholly ignorant of the art of writing, and had adopted a system entirely different from the one which they now use. For a proper exposition of this an elaborate explanation would be required....

His creation hath ever existed, and the Manifestations of His Divine glory and the Day Springs of eternal holiness have been sent down from time immemorial, and been commissioned to summon mankind to the one true God. That the names of some of them are forgotten and the records of their lives lost is to be attributed to the disturbances and changes that have overtaken the world....

Moreover, many cataclysms have occurred which have effaced the traces of many events. Furthermore, among existing historical records differences are to be found, and each of the various peoples of the world hath its own account of the age of the earth and of its history. Some trace their history as far back as eight thousand years, others as far as twelve thousand years. To any one that hath read the book of Jük it is clear and evident how much the accounts given by the various books have differed.